Cake
by midnightinjapan
Summary: An adventure in baking. Percico - Percy/Nico


**A prompt I got for Percico Weekend.**

Disclaimer: Characters, locations, etc are the property of Rick Riordan.

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Sally Jackson was without a doubt the kindest woman he'd ever met. He didn't remember his mother, Maria, but he hoped she and Sally would have had a lot in common. Percy's mother had never shooed him out of her home, or warned her son to stay away from him. She also worried for Percy but allowed him to do what she knew he needed to do. He saw all of this when they'd come to her three years ago and asked for her permission to give Percy the curse of Achilles.

When he and Percy started dating, she had actually encouraged them. He even suspected she talked Percy out of ending it early in the beginning. Back when they were both nervous and scared of how they felt for each other. Now, they were happy, and Sally played a part in that. She was always hugging him and pushing food at him and in his opinion, she was way too good for Poseidon.

So when Percy came to him and said he wanted to do something special for Mother's Day, Nico was all for it. It wasn't until they were standing in Percy's kitchen that he was told they would be baking a cake from scratch…

"Um, Percy? Do you know how to bake?" he asked fearfully.

"Well, not really but how hard could it be? You just follow the recipe, right?" Percy said shrugging.

"I guess…" said Nico.

Percy opened a little notebook he was holding and flipped through it.

"This," he said showing Nico the page. "This is the recipe for the cake she makes every year on my birthday. She puts blue icing on it for me, but I think we should do pink for her."

"So, did you buy icing or…?"

"Nah, we can make it," Percy said brightly. He was so cute but Nico had a feeling this was going to be a little rough.

"My mom always makes the icing first so it can firm up in the fridge."

"Okay," Nico said resigning himself to the gallows. "What do we do first?"

_10 minutes later…_

"Percy, I don't think you should turn it on high at first."

"It'll take too long on low!"

"But what if-"

Percy rolled his eyes and pushed the toggle switch all the way to high on the mixer and as the paddle whirled to life it sent a blast of powdered sugar in every direction. They both screamed and Nico shot forward into the sweet cloud and turned the mixer off. He had to wipe his face off as best he could and Percy was spitting powdered sugar out of his mouth. It was all over them and the kitchen. There were little drifts of sugary mess all over the counters and floor.

"Okay," Percy said looking around. "We won't be turning the mixer on high anymore."

"Percy, please can we just go to the store and buy a box cake, or even one already made? It's the thought that counts!" pleaded Nico.

"Nico, we just had one little slip up, that's all…"

"Are you kidding me?" Nico asked indignantly as he gestured to their man-made winter wonderland.

"We can fix this," Percy said full of confidence. "I'll start cleaning this and you scrape up some more sugar to make the icing."

Nico groaned aloud and ruffled his hair to shake the sugar out. He was sure he was going to taste sweet for days. Percy grabbed the boom and he hopped out of the way so Percy could clean up the work area first. When he moved on Nico went back to the counter and tried to guess how much more powdered sugar he needed. There was some left in the mixing bowl but it was clumped up with the butter and he couldn't separate them. He guessed he need about a cup and half more and started measuring.

_10 more minutes later…_

"This isn't right and we need to mop," Nico said flatly. The kitchen was still lightly dusted in white after the sweeping and the icing was a clumpy pink mess.

"It just needs to sit," Percy said spooning it into a bowl and sticking it into the fridge. "We can mop while the cake cools."

"Percy, I'm going to the store," he said turning to leave.

"Why?" Percy grabbed his arm to stop him and nearly slipped on the dusty floor.

"To. Buy. A. Cake!"

"But we've only done the icing! We haven't even tried to make the cake. We know what not to do now!"

"Percy, I will shadow travel us both to the store if you don't let go."

"Nico, please?" He could swear Percy's eyes got two sizes bigger and he could never so no to those eyes.

"If we mess up one more time, we're going to the store," he said firmly. "I mean it, Percy."

"Agreed," said Percy smiling.

_40 minutes later…_

"Okay, it is definitely, **definitely** burnt…"

"Oh really?" asked Nico sarcastically. "And here I thought the cake was supposed to be dark brown and tough."

Percy sighed and he looked so sad that Nico couldn't stay angry. The kitchen was a catastrophe and Nico knew he needed to be positive right now.

"Hey," he said taking Percy's hand. "I'll mop, you clean the counters, and then we'll go to the store, okay?"

When Sally and Paul came home they yelled "surprise" and presented her with a vanilla cake with white icing, bought from the store two blocks over. It had "Happy Mother's Day" written in light pink icing and they'd even stuck candles in and lit them. They both received hugs and kisses and sat around eating the cake –without plates—and just laughing. Nico thought they were in the clear until Paul got up to make coffee…

"Honey?"

"Hm?"

"Why is the toaster full of powdered sugar?"

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End


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